Chapter 6
The Learner: Pre-Instruction Considerations
Key Talking Points
· All learners have unique preferences for receiving and processing new information, which define their learning style.
· Greater learning gains have been shown when the instructional style is matched to the learner’s learning style.
· Four perceptual modes should be considered when giving instructions and designing practice environments: visual, kinesthetic, analytical, and auditory.
· When the learning a new skill or its performance under novel conditions is influenced by the individual’s past experience with another skill or skills, transfer is said to occur.
· While practitioners should capitalize on positive transfer, negative transfer is often the result of having to learn a new response to a well-learned stimulus.
· To determine the similarity between two skills and assess the potential for positive transfer, four factors should be compared: fundamental movement pattern, strategic and conceptual aspects of the game or task, perceptual elements, and temporal and spatial elements.
· Considerations for fostering positive transfer include the following:
§ Determining the cost–benefit tradeoff of its implementation
§ Understanding the past experiences of learners
§ Determining and highlighting the similarities and differences between skills already learned and those being learned
§ Ensuring that the skills being used for transfer have been well learned
§ Using analogies
§ Maximizing similarities between practice and performance
§ Adjusting instruction to the skill level of the learner
· Motivation is an internal condition that incites and directs action or behavior.
· In order to learn, an individual must be motivated to do so.
Short Answer / Essay Questions
1. Explain how you might informally assess an individual’s learning preference.
2. Compare and contrast the Identical Elements Theory and the Transfer Appropriate Processing Theories.
3. Compare and contrast positive and negative transfer.
4. Using the concept of transfer, explain why it is important to get to know your learners.
Web Resource
The following URL takes students to Abiator’s Online Learning Styles Inventory, a test that lets them determine their preferred perceptual mode for learning new skills.
§ www.berghuis.co.nz/abiator/lsi/ (Page 138)
Ø Key Words: Test, Athletic Training, Learning
Exploration Activities
Exploring Your Learning Preferences
Note: This activity gives students a quick assessment of their learning-style preferences using Dunn and Dunn’s model. (Page 139)
Several elements from Dunn and Dunn’s learning style model are presented below. For each element, circle the description that better suits your preference when learning new information.
Analytical learners will tend to select responses under Option A, while global learners are more inclined to choose responses provided under Option B. Remember that all learners are different, and some individuals may have a combined profile.
Self-Analysis
Note: This activity lets students see what leaning style they favor when instructing others. (Page 141)
Videotape yourself teaching a 10-minute lesson on a skill of your choice. Review your video and, using the following box, tabulate the number of cue words and strategies that you use in each of the four perceptual mode categories: visual, kinesthetic, auditory, and analytical (these were discussed in Table 6.1 on page 140). Do you tend to teach the way you prefer to learn, as research suggests? Do you incorporate all four modes of presentation, or do you tend to use only one mode? Suggest areas on the video where you could have used a different mode. Give a specific example of an alternative cue word or strategy for each of these areas.
Observation: Transfer
Note: This activity gives students a means of analyzing the potential for transfer of learning in onsite observations of recreation. (Page 147).
For this activity, arrange to observe at your school’s athletic training room or a local rehabilitation or physical therapy clinic.
1. How many examples of equipment, instructions, exercises, and so on can you find that are designed to elicit positive transfer? List them.
2. For each example on your list, determine which component(s) of the skill will transfer (fundamental movement pattern, strategic and conceptual aspects, perceptual elements, or temporal and spatial elements).
Answers to Selected Cerebral Challenges
DISCLAIMER
Because all learning situations involve a dynamic relationship among the learner, the task, and the environment, many responses will depend on the assumptions the respondent made when answering the question. Consequently, the answers provided are merely examples of possible responses and do not necessarily reflect all possibilities.
Cerebral Challenge 6.1
Discuss the importance of effective communication for teachers, coaches, and therapists. In your discussion, specify those with whom you will have to communicate and when you will use communication throughout the learning process.
Answer
The basis for all interactions and relationships with other individuals is communication. Effective communication occurs when the message conveyed by the sender (both verbally and non-verbally) is understood as intended by the receiver.
Example: High school coach
Examples of people that a high school coach will communicate with:
Athletes
Officials
School administration
Teachers
Bus driver
Custodial staff
Parents
Media
Athletic training personnel
Other coaches
Cerebral Challenge 6.3
Go back to the story at the beginning of the chapter about the pole vaulter. What was the athlete’s preferred perceptual mode? Suggest alternative strategies that the coach could have used to better accommodate the athlete’s learning style?
Answer
The athlete’s preferred perceptual mode is visual. Examples of alternative strategies would be providing a demonstration or showing the athlete a video of his or her performance.
Cerebral Challenge 6.5
Below are examples of strategies for accommodating specific modal strengths in physical education offered by Reed, Banks, and Carlisle (2004). Determine which modal preference (visual, kinesthetic, analytical, auditory) would best be accommodated by each suggestion.
a. Demonstrate five patterns of jumping.
b. Create a fitness plan for you and your family to follow over summer vacation.
c. Create a series of diagrams that explain a strategy or tactic used in a game.
d. Design a flow chart that explains ______.
e. Create a dance that expresses the way you value physical education.
f. Create a poster of the four most important things a good dribbler does.
Answer
a. Kinesthetic
b. Analytical
c. Visual
d. Visual
e. Kinesthetic
f. Visual
Cerebral Challenge 6.7
Analyze the following pairs of skills to determine their similarities and differences. Be sure to compare the fundamental movement pattern, strategic and conceptual aspects, perceptual elements, and temporal and spatial elements. Based on your analysis, assess the potential for transfer, either positive or negative, for each pairing. Justify your answer.
a. Cane walking and using a walker
b. Downhill skiing and waterskiing
c. Kickball and baseball
d. Mountain biking and whitewater kayaking
Answer
Example: Kickball vs. Baseball
· Fundamental movement pattern
§ Running to base
· Strategic and conceptual aspects
§ Played on a baseball field
§ Rules generally follow baseball rules, with the exception that the ball is kicked rather than struck with a bat
§ Hitting behind the runner
· Perceptual elements
§ Tracking the ball
· Temporal and spatial elements
§ Spatial awareness
§ Coincident timing
Cerebral Challenge 6.8
On a separate sheet, for a sport or activity of your choice, list 10 analogies that you could use to assist a learner in creating a mental picture of a corresponding skill.
Answer
Examples of responses:
Analogy Corresponding Skill
Hand in the cookie jar Follow through in basketball shot
Squash the bug Foot rotation (pivot) in a number of sports
Snap the towel Release for basic Frisbee throw
Tickle, T, Touch Arm movement in the elementary backstroke
Swing like a pendulum Golf putt
Shake hands with the racket Tennis grip
Catching a raw egg Absorption of ball
Cerebral Challenge 6.9
Think back to the last time you had to learn something that you weren’t interested in. Why were you not motivated to learn? How much effort did you put into learning? What other consequences to the learning process resulted from your lack of motivation?
Answer
Typically we are not motivated to learn something we are not interested in and, as a result, do not put much effort into the learning process. Other potential consequences include interfering with other learners, failure to pay attention, increased possibility of injury, poor practice behaviors, and so forth.
Cerebral Challenge 6.10
- How might you motivate an injured athlete to learn and complete a rehabilitation program? How would your suggestions differ for physical education students who perceive volleyball to be boring?
Answer
Examples of responses:
· Provide opportunities for success in each session
· Incorporate goal setting (see Chapter 8)
· Introduce variety into rehab protocol
· Establish a positive practice environment
Responses would be similar for the physical education class, with the addition of telling them why the skill is important and giving them a reason to learn it.
2. Generate a more extensive list of reasons why students, athletes, or patients may not be motivated to learn, and then develop specific strategies that could stimulate their interest
Answer
Examples of reasons a patient may not be motivated to learn:
· Fear of falling or injury
· Fear of not recovering/hopelessness
· Failure to see improvement
· Amount of effort required to perform rehab activities
Strategies for improving motivation:
· Teach patient how to fall safely
· Teach techniques to minimize risk of other injuries
· Provide opportunities for success each session
· Incorporate goal setting (see Chapter 8)
· Introduce variety into rehab protocol
· Establish positive practice environment